15 May

Lisbon is a letdown. Admittedly, we didn't go up into the business district, staying in the more touristy parts, but it just looks tired. We walked by their version of the Pentagon, and it looked more like an old factory or warehouse in one of our NE cities. There was lots of trash everywhere. We just expected better, I guess, after finding Spain so much nicer than anticipated.

We stayed at a hostel, mostly because, after climbing up several giant hills, we were too tired to lug our stuff elsewhere. This is easily the bottom of the list of places we've stayed to date. After dumping our packs, we walked to sight-seeing areas recommended by the innkeeper. One of them was the Castle of St George, or "Castelo de Sao Jorge." It was a nice castle, dating from the 11th century. We were amazed to find a fairly large market operating in and around it. It's kind of like having a craft fair on the grounds of Mt Vernon. I suppose back in the day there really were merchants, etc, set up in and around castles, so that part could have been ignored, but they also had jazz blaring from an elaborate sound system, which sort of messed up the ambiance of a medieval castle.

After the castle, we strolled the town for a couple of hours, bought groceries for supper, found our way 'home', cooked the supper, caught up on email and this journal, and settled in for the night.

Lisbon FD

Rua de S. Paulo

Tagus waterfront

Praça do Comércio

Lisbon Cathedral

Lisbon Cathedral

Castelo de Sao Jorge

map (larger map)	outside	inside	Joe inside
SW to Ponte 25 de Abril	Lisbon from castle	curtain walls-walk	Joe on wall
castle ditch